Joint for rail ends and splice bars therefor



' 193$ R. F. GREENWOOD 9 9 JOINT FOR RAIL ENDS AND SPLICE BARS THEREFORFiled Aug. 22, 1932 INVENTOR.

.45 holes to produceintegrallyfrom the metal of the Patented May 26,1936 ,1; 2,041,828

UNITED" STATES PATENT orrlcs JOINT FOR RAIL ENDS AND SPLICE BARSTHEREFOR Richard F. Greenwood, New York, N. Y., assignor to StandardEquipments, Inc., a corporation of Maryland Application August 22, 1932,Serial No. 629,814

2 Claims. (01. 238-243) This invention relates to improvements in oo-actand co-operate with each other in the joints for rail ends and splicebars therefor. performance of the functions and the accom- It has beendetermined that the apex of the plishment of the results hereincontemplated, and strain of the rolling load on a rail occurs in acomprises in one of its adaptions the species or vertical planeextending longitudinally about an preferred form illustrated in theaccompanying 5 inch from the center line or middle of the raildrawing,in which:

head and parallel with and closely adjacent to Fig. 1 is a View inelevation of one side of a the web of the rail, and it is one of theobjects rail joint embodying my'invention; of this invention to utilizemy splice bar to assist Fig. 2 is a. vertical section on the line 2-2 of1') the railhead in supporting this load-strain more Fig. 1 looking inthe direction of the arrows and .0 effectively by providing a bar whichwill engage showing the bolt before the nut is tightened up beneath thehead in the plane of the load-strain on the bolt;

and by positioning the body or web of such bar Fig. 3 is a sectionsimilar to Fig. 2 showing the in a position beneath the head which willsubnut tightened up on the bolt;

stantially coincide with the plane of such load- Fig. 4 is a section onthe line 6-4 of Fig. 1 15' strain,'and with this end in view, I providefor looking in the direction of the arrows; contact of the barpreferably with the entire fish- Fig. 5 is a horizontal section on theline 55 ing area of the rail including the rail-web and of Fig. 1looking in the direction of the arrows; upper and lower fillet portionsbetween the web Fig. 6 is a view in elevation similar to Fig. 1

and the head and flange respectively, and the showing a modified form ofmy invention; 20 areas outside of the said upper and lower fillet Fig.'7 is a section on the line 'l'i of Fig. 6 portions. looking in thedirection of the arrows.

Still another object of my invention is to pro- Referring now to thisdrawing, it will be seen v n r ly n a p i b a n t-l ck spring that onefeature of my invention is directed to a washer adapted to enable thetight retention of joint structure in which the web or body of the nutson the bolts, and to eliminate the use of splice bars will be disposedvertically beneath loose, independent nut-lock washers and the exthesides of the head of the rail so as to provide Dense c n theretou asupport and to reinforce said head directly in Still another object ofmy invention is to prothe plane through which the major portion or Videa splice'bal having its middle P01171011 COII- apex of the stress of theload of rolling stock on 30 taming W h the fishing a a of t e i dsaid-rail is transmitted and which plane is estidi e fi fl pp dfillets dfla e mated to be removed about one inch from the and head sections, andalso to provide a bar havmiddle of the head of the rail, known as thevering end portions simi rly c ta n with the tical centroid and also toprovide a joint in which Said entire fishing area of the rail ends and pthe inner surface of the splice bars have a conticularly with the websection of such fishing t t, area engaging with a major portion of theare fishing area of the rail including a contact be- Stil an e bj of myinvention is to utilize tween the web of the bar and the web-section ofa splice-bar construction having a web section Said fi hi g area f th md preferably l 40 contacting with and bearing on the web section of withthe head and flange fillets and with 40 the fishing area" the i andprovided with faces beneath the rail head and with the flange anintegral locahzed seamen struckmp and so throughout its entire lengthexcept where struck formed as to be relieved from said web contactupSections prevail as shown ing section and surrounding one or more boltReferring now particularly to Figs 1 to 5 of this drawing, lt--IE!'indicates rail ends joined together by splice bars H-l I. In said Figs.1

bar a nut-lock element spaced or relieved from gggg igg; g gi zfi wgg:32 23: :3? g g g to 5 inclusive, each of the splice bars is providedthe bars to cause the nuts when screwed home on with a Web section andprlifembliy Wlth the bolts to be securely locked on the bars bycontacting flange 3 co tac ms w1th the under 50 the spring action orefiect of the integral struck- Surface 0 the head d fi t l5 be ween theup portion. head and web It of the rail which I shall here- With theseand other objects in view, the ininafter call the head fillet and saidbar also vention comprises the combination of members is provided with abottomflange l1: contacting and arrangement of parts so combined as towith the rail flange I8 and w1th the lower fillet I9 55 between therail-web and rail-flange, which fillet I shall hereinafter call theflange fillet.

As illustrated, the web l2 of each of the splice bars has its middlesection I2 which bridges the joint disposed in contact with the webportion l6 of the fishing area of the rail and the end sections l2a andl2b at the outer sides of the bolts of the splice bars also have theirweb portions contacting with the web portion of the rail, and in thepreferred embodiment of my invention shown in Figs. 1 to 5, the webportion I20 and H11 also contact with the web portion of the rails asmore particularly shown in Fig. 5. In the construction shown in Figs. 1to 5 therefore, the splice bars will have contact with the fishing area,including the web of the rail, the under surfaces of the rail head, thehead-fillets, the top surface of the rail-flange and the flange fillet,said bar being substantially U shaped in cross-section and disposedoppositely to the rail joint design employed in general practice. When abar is fitted in this position, the Web or body of the bar willreinforce the head and web of the rail and will be disposed verticallybeneath the plane in the head through which the major portion of thestrain of the load is transmitted during the movement of the rollingstock of the rails in the cycle of positive and negative stress values.

My invention is also directed to the formation integrally in the webportion of a splice bar of a nut-lock washer section localized in saidweb section so as to surround a bolt hole or bolt holes, wherebyindependent spring nut-lock washers may be eliminated and the nuts andbolts will be held securely by the spring tension afforded in thelocalized metal portion constituting said lockwasher section.

Also in accordance with my invention, the splice bars are made of highcarbon spring metal and an integral portion 20 surrounding eachbolt-hole is struck up from the web of the bar so as to provide anintegral spring-washer section, the inner surface of which will beslightly spaced from the normal plane of the inner surface of the barand will be relieved from contact with the rail-web and the outersurface of which will be slightly raised above the normal plane of theouter surface of the bar, and when a pair of these splice bars arepositioned as hereinab-ove described and shown in the drawing, the saidouter surfaces will be contacted directly by the bolt head and the nut22.

The metal of the bar will be of such resilience as to enable theintegral Washer to have sufficient springiness or resilience to permit aslight inward springing-movement thereof upon pressure caused by thetightening of the bolts. These integral struck-up washers will thus,under the screw pressure due to tightening up of the nuts on the bolts,resiliently hold and lock the nuts securely in position on the bolts.

Figs. 6 and 7 show a construction which is in all respects similar tothat shown in Figs. 1 to 5 except that a single struck-up integralspring washer, instead of surrounding one bolt-hole only, is arranged toinclude a plurality of bolt holes so that one integral spring washerincludes and serves a plurality of bolts, or it may be said that aplurality of integral spring-washers are connected together in onestruck up portion. In this construction, however, the web of the bar isarranged to provide contact with the web section of the fishing area ofthe rail at a plurality of points along its length and preferably hassuch contact at the middle section l2 and at the ends of the splice barson opposite sides of the bolt holes. In this way, effective contact isprovided between the rail webs and the inner surfaces of the webs of thesplice bars to provide a bearing contact for applying pressure to thespring washer portions and also contact is maintained with the majorportion of the fishing area of the rail, preferably including contactwith the rail-web section, the head and flange fillets and head andflange fishing sections outside of the said fillets.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In a rail-joint, a pair of rail ends having bolt holes, a pair ofsplice bars of channel-formation, each having across the joint and atopposite ends web-sections contacting throughout their entire surfaceswith the web-sections of the fishing areas of the rail ends and otherweb-sections contacting at one portion and offset at portion of theirsurfaces with said web-section of the fishing areas of the rails, saidbars also having outwardly-extending flanges comprising a top-flangecontacting with the head-fillet and under surface of the head of therail and a bottom flange contacting with the flange-fillet and with aportion of the flange of the rail, the major portion of the metal of thesplice bars being disposed beneath the overhanging head portions of therail in longitudinal-vertical parallel planes extending closely adjacentto the web of the rail and one of said planes being closely adjacent tothe vertical plane through which the major portion of the strain of theload is transmitted, whereby greater strength of the joint is producedand oifset portions are provided for locking the bar, bolt holes in saidoffset portions, and bolts passing through the bolt holes of said barsand rail ends.

2. In a rail-joint, a pair of rail ends having bolt holes, a pair ofsplice bars of channel-formation, each having bolt holes registeringwith the bolt holes of the rail ends and provided across the joint, atopposite ends and between the bolt holes with web-sections contactingthroughout their entire surfaces with the web-section of the fishing areof the rail ends and also provided with web-sections having portionsadjacent to the bolt holes offset from said web-section and otherportions surrounding said offset portions in contact with the fishingarea of the rail, said oiTset portions of said web-sections of thesplicebars comprising localized portions surrounding the bolt holes andstruck up in relief from the normal plane of the web of the bar toprovide integral spring-washers, said splice bars also having outwardlyextending flanges comprising a top-flange contacting with thehead-fillet and under surface of the head of the rail and a bottomflange contacting with the flange-fillet and with a portion of theflange of the rail, the major portion of the metal of the splice barbeing disposed beneath the overhanging head portions of the rail inlongitudinal-vertical parallel planes extending closely adjacent to theweb of the rail and one of said planes being closely adjacent to thevertical plane through which the major portion of the strain of the loadis transmitted whereby greater strength of the joint is produced andlocalized washer portions are provided for locking the bar.

RICHARD F. GREENWOOD.

